Dear John McCain, We Conservatives Are with You Now; Please Be with Us Later

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS A SAD REMINDER THAT WE ARE ALL MORTAL. When I read the internet headline on Wednesday evening that Senator John McCain has brain cancer, it hit me like a kick to my stomach. If you follow my blog regularly, you know that I disagreed with Senator McCain's strategy in 2008 when he was the Republican presidential nominee. That disagreement got more serious as John McCain grouched his way through the 2012 Romney campaign. And, it has hit major proportions as he appears to delight in taking every anti-Trump position possible, and as he deliberately reminds us Republicans that, while we are all part of the Grand Old Party, we are not a solid block that moves in lock-step, as do the Democrants, around whichever leader happens to be calling the shots on a particular issue. But, those mounting disagreements do not tell the entire story about John McCain, who is a long-term survivor of melanoma, a deadly skin cancer. • McCain, the GOP's presidential nominee in 2008, and a Navy pilot, was shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner for 5 ½ years. His status as a national hero stems from his long period a prisoner of war. • • • JOHN MCCAIN'S TUMOR. Associated Press reports that McCain's doctors say Arizona he has a brain tumor associated with a blood clot that was removed last week. In a statement late Wednesday, doctors revealed that McCain has been diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive cancer. The statement says the 80-year-old Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment, including a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. The Senator has been recovering at his Arizona home after doctors at the Mayo Clinic removed a blood clot above his left eye. The doctors say McCain is recovering from his surgery amazingly well and his underlying health is excellent, according to the statement. McCain's Mayo Clinic doctors said they managed to remove all the tumor that was visible on brain scans. But this kind of tumor, formally known as a glioblastoma multiforme, is aggressive and sneaky. It puts out microscopic roots that go deeper into brain tissue, explained Dr. Joshua Bederson, chairman of neurosurgery at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, who has no direct knowledge of McCain's care, but Dr. Bederson says that a tumor above the eye is in a location that permits removal with far less risk of damage to language, motor and other brain functions than in many other areas. • Doctors classified this new cancer as a "primary tumor," meaning it's not related to his former malignancies. Even among those who respond to initial treatment, the cancer can come back, and often within 12 to 24 months. The American Cancer Society puts the five-year survival rate for patients over 55 at about 4%. Scientists are trying new approaches to treat glioblastomas, such as testing a novel treatment that uses the patient's immune system to attack the cancer. The treatment, called CAR-T cell therapy, has been used for blood cancers, but its value for solid tumors like brain tumors is unknown. A cap-like device that makes electric fields to fight cancer has been shown to improve survival odds for people with glioblastomas. Mount Sinai's Dr. Bederson tells his own glioblastoma patients that he knows they'll look up the grim statistics, but he wants them to remember that some people do beat the odds for long periods. He said : "It's a small number. But that's the hope my patients have when they leave my office." • • • WE WISH YOU MORE THAN WELL, JOHN, WE WISH YOU THE VERY BEST. And we offer our prayers for you and your family. And, if you get back to the Senate, please try to be a little less Grinch-y, a little more Republican, a little more conservative, a little more a Trump Deplorable. America needs all of us working together on the GOP side of the aisle, if we are going to free ourselves and the Republic from the Swamp and its Progressive Creatures. We are with you. Please be with us.